Reviews by Dope:

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Pours a deep brown with a hint of red showing thru when held up to the light with a creamy head that settles into a soapy-like finish.Big roasted malt hits the nose as well as some nuttiness and just a hint of cocoa,smells big and bold.Taste is also of deep roasted malt and earth,with some sweetness coming on more as I drink the hops dont come into play much u can tell they are there but not overly done.A big robust porter full of complexities very well done from Avery. (474 characters)

Super dark brown body, not quite opaque. Light tan head. Fluffy 3/4" initially but reduced to a thin layer of dense bubbles. Laces beautifully by grabbing all over the glass. Very nice for a porter.

Nice aroma of chocolate with some bittersweet notes a touch of toffee and fainting hints of black coffee. Overall solid, simple and inviting. First off I note the body and carbonation when I taste this first, fairly full bodied and crisp with carbonation. Coats the mouth well and the flavor lingers. Flavor comes on as bittersweet chocolate again and then to a toffee in the end. A little sweetness and a bit of roasted bitterness in the end. Nicely done. Really reminds me of the chocolate coating on those Riesin candies I used to eat.

Overall good drinkability, nicely flavored porter with a good mouthfeel. (816 characters)

The New World Porter poured an opaque midnight black. It had a monstrous brown head that had good staying power and laced the glass.

The aroma is chocolate and fruity hops with a touch of fig.

The taste is chocolate malt, with some big bitter hops, and a hint of citrus. Some figs come out as the beer warms. It has a strong burnt, chalky, slightly metallic taste/mouthfeel that mellows some with time. If not for this, this would be a top notch brew.

Overall this is a very different/interesting brew. It's kind of an IPA and porter mix. (547 characters)

I was not hugely impressed with this beer. It looked nice in the glass; uneven head up top, opaque dark brown down below. There were nice coffee flavors up front, with a definite hop taste on the finish. It's a little unusal for a porter and might take some getting used to. (274 characters)

Once again...thanks to Downtown Wine & Spirits for bringing in these.
Pours a dark black w/ a dark tan two finger head...top notch lacing going on as the head settles, but never fades.
For me, the unusual experience of smelling hops first off in a Porter is happily greeted. You just know there will be plenty of other things going on to balance this beer out.
Dark chocolates and butter rum aromas on the surface as well.
The taste is a bitter, yet mellow burst of coffee and malt takes over. Again, a touch of hops, but I would not consider this beer to be overly hoppy by any means. The mouthfeel is decent...maybe a bit thin for its style. The aftertaste is also a bit bitter, but does not linger...very refreshing. Easily a session brew in my opinion...another keeper from Avery. (788 characters)

Aroma has a nice citrusy hop scent with a bit of coffee-like roastedness. Head was nice and foamy tan, not quite beige like some black ales have. Taste is pretty roasted but well balanced with hops. The malts don't tasted debittered so I felt like it tasted more like a porter like the name implies rather than a "pioneer Black IPA" as the label also states... Overall excellent full-bodied black ale with a nice coffee roasted malt flavor with just a hint of citrusy and piney hops, not too heavy which is nice for a black ale. (528 characters)

Pours black with a good tan head. Aroma of chocolate and toffee, with some caramel and malt. Taste is interesting. Loads of coffee and chocolate, but the hops give the finish an earthy, almost peaty character. Kind of like someone dropped a shot of Islay scotch into the keg. Creamy mouthfeel makes this a nice little beer and pushes it up a few notches. (354 characters)

New World Porter opens with a surprisingly hoppy nose, ripe with grapefruit, lemon, and touches of pine resin, and at first blush bears little resemblance to a porter, and much more to an IPA. After a few seconds the initial hop aromas fade slightly, revealing a much darker malt base rich with coffee, cream, baking whole wheat bread, and thick molasses. Touches of ash and pepper add a bit of spark, mixed in with a not-insubstantial dollop of caramel. As a whole, the nose is quite nice, bearing excellent aromas in well-balanced proportions. But even with the darker malt aromas at the most present, this beer still does not smell like a porter. The hops are simply too present in their pink grapefruit goodness, providing a strange introduction. Perhaps much of the problem here lies in the name, for while the beer is labeled a “porter” in its title, a small note on the side of the label denotes it as a “Black IPA”—something I didn’t notice until the strong hop aromas made me read the bottle more carefully.

On the tongue, the initial flavors are hops, rushing forward in grapefruit, lemon, mint, and pine resin with somewhat unbalanced strength. I say this because the malts prove a little difficult to locate against the hop onslaught, and only touches of coffee, ash, brown sugar, cream, and caramel make their way through. There is still a good bit of baking bread, however, and apricot fruit esters add a lovely sugary note. The aftertaste is, at first, a continuation of the bright, citrusy grapefruit and lemon hop notes, though after a while a runnel of ash makes it way through, providing for an interesting experience. Mouthfeel is a slightly watery medium-light, and carbonation is medium.

Overall, while I quite liked the hop flavors in here, there simply weren’t enough of the darker, malty notes--certainly not enough to satisfy this drinker’s craving for a Black IPA. Without this label--i.e. if I were drinking this blind--the beer would actually be quite good, and I would simply assume I was partaking in a good IPA with some light touches of ash. But the contrast confuses my tongue, as does the slightly watery mouthfeel. So while there is much to appreciate in this brew, I think its labeling doesn’t work. Drink it as a straight IPA, then, and enjoy. (2,301 characters)